U.S. Rep. Steve King: If not for rape and incest, 'would there be any population left?'
Source: Des Moines Register
U.S. Rep. Steve King told the Westside Conservative Club Wednesday that humanity might not exist if not for rape and incest throughout human history.
"What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" he said in Urbandale, Iowa. "Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can't say that I was not a part of a product of that."
The Kiron Republican was discussing his defense of not allowing exceptions for rape and incest in the anti-abortion legislation he tried to pass in Congress. Republican leadership had prevented bills he sponsored on banning abortions from advancing through the House, despite GOP support for the measures, King said.
Just because a conception happened in bad circumstances doesn't mean the result isn't a person, King, who is Catholic, argued.
Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/14/steve-king-abortion-rape-incest-westside-conservative-iowa-representative-birth-iowa-civilization/2007230001/
redwitch
(14,944 posts)I wish he would shut up. Or get raptured.
marble falls
(57,079 posts)Marie Marie
(9,999 posts)patphil
(6,172 posts)Traildogbob
(8,726 posts)He needs to get rape-tured. God not gonna give him any assention up the heaven tube.
SharonAnn
(13,772 posts)tclambert
(11,085 posts)of stupidest member of Congress. C'mon, Louie, you can do it.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)William Seger
(10,778 posts)Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)Who else would vote for him?
displacedtexan
(15,696 posts)Translation: all of us are rapists and/or participants in incest, so we all have to keep women from aborting our rapey and incesty issue.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Cartaphelius
(868 posts)state. They should examine his Family Tree to find out when & where it went branchless.
Could make an interesting picture, in crayon of course.
MissMillie
(38,553 posts). that a "person" is only worth worrying about until s/he is born.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)I'll bet his mother would stand proud to hear her son say that. Of course, I don't know his mother, and I certainly consider myself lucky that I don't know her son, either.
King, why don't you retire?
brewens
(13,581 posts)about. I'd say without all the slaughter and famine, the population would have done better, but what do I know.
EarlG
(21,947 posts)That's the amount of time it's take from Donald Trump becoming president to Republican congressmen publicly defending rape and incest.
MAGA!
bucolic_frolic
(43,143 posts)by America's Dimwit
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)And yet the bible does not mention it anywhere.
And as far as "Thou shall not kill", the original Hebrew states it as "Thou shall not murder"
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)When you're discussing these things with self-righteous "Christians" who've never even read it.
I make regular sport of deconstructing fulminating, so-called "Christians" I encounter on Jesus-related topics. Maybe 5% of these people that I've engaged with have ever read any one of the Gospels cover to cover.
Vinca
(50,269 posts)sdfernando
(4,931 posts)which of his children does he want to rape?
geardaddy
(24,926 posts)Mrs. Overall
(6,839 posts)Do his constituents really share his various bizarre beliefs?
TryLogic
(1,723 posts)IronLionZion
(45,433 posts)Congress needs to throw him out.
PatSeg
(47,418 posts)than they do about human history. Any man who downplays rape has probably been guilty of it or fantasizes about it. What a sick bastard.
TryLogic
(1,723 posts)marble falls
(57,079 posts)of it.
Baitball Blogger
(46,702 posts)world wide wally
(21,741 posts)Chakaconcarne
(2,446 posts)Delphinus
(11,830 posts)digging his own grave? Will they vote him back in?
Mrs. Overall
(6,839 posts)One of my favorite comments on Twitter so far.
47of74
(18,470 posts)japple
(9,823 posts)eom
docgee
(870 posts)jpak
(41,757 posts)Yup
The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)Just when you thought a republican couldn't get more depraved Steve King says "Hold my beer".
We have certainly reached the point, if these are that souls the right wing folks choose as their representatives, where the sharing of this nation can no longer be possible.
Bromwell
(123 posts)clowns are forced to come up with constantly, to defend their indefensible positions.
Ever notice that the GOP always seems to end up twisting itself into knots trying to justify/explain their crazy beliefs. This one is just as crazy a justification as "arming teachers" or having armed guards everywhere to defend us against mass shootings....
Of course taking a SANE or logical position is not in the cards for them I guess
Must be hard being a Repug.....
47of74
(18,470 posts)fight my move out of Iowa urge.
keithbvadu2
(36,783 posts)And the Catholic Church's acceptance of bastards has been...?
SharonAnn
(13,772 posts)SayItLoud
(1,702 posts)"Oh that crazy wacky Steve King...there he goes again". Then crickets.
SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)dlk
(11,560 posts)Republicans are truly the women-haters party.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,000 posts)genxlib
(5,524 posts)You are pretty much stuck with the idea that the offspring of Adam and Eve were boning each other.
Demonaut
(8,914 posts)poor Mrs King
I hope he does not have daughters
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Be better than this
Ztolkins
(429 posts)If so, is he saying he raped his sister?
MBS
(9,688 posts)Botany
(70,501 posts)The man is an asshole from wiki .... I was seeing if he had family.
Animal rights
In February 2010, King tweeted about chasing and shooting a raccoon that had tried to enter his house during a blizzard, prompting criticism from animal rights groups. He defended his actions, saying the animal might have been rabid.[69]
In July 2012, King opposed the McGovern Amendment (to the 2012 Farm Bill) to establish misdemeanor penalties for knowingly attending an organized animal fight and felony penalties for bringing a minor to such a fight. He was also one of 39 members of the House to vote against an upgrade of penalties for transporting fighting animals across state lines in 2007.[70] King received a score of zero on the 2012 Humane Society Legislative Fund's Humane Scorecard.[71][72][73] Afterward, he put out a video clarifying his position, stating that it would be putting animals above humans if it were legal to watch humans fight but not animals.[74]
In July 2012, King introduced an amendment to the House Farm Bill that would legalize previously banned animal agriculture practices such as tail-docking, using banned arsenic based drugs in chicken feed, and keeping impregnated pigs in small crates. "My language wipes out everything they've done with pork and veal," King said of his amendment.[75] The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) President Wayne Pacelle said the measure could nullify "any laws to protect animals, and perhaps ... laws to protect the environment, workers, or public safety."[76]
In May 2013, King introduced another amendment to the House Farm Bill, the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA), saying, "PICA blocks states from requiring 'free range' eggs or 'free range' pork."[77] In 2014, the controversial provision was dropped.[78]
Video Drone
(75 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,851 posts)Mme. Defarge
(8,028 posts)theres nothing left to lose.
keithbvadu2
(36,783 posts)Republican: legitimate rape cannot get pregnant
https://www.google.com/search?ei=C-XYXOOrHYLS0gLo9qjIDg&q=legitimate+rape+cannot+get+pregnant&oq=legitimate+rape+cannot+get+pregnant&gs_l=psy-ab.3...38770.42606..44614...1.0..0.159.1595.0j11......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.SP27hfoYf2U
https://www.mic.com/articles/48691/the-7-most-outrageous-gop-explanations-for-why-rape-victims-can-t-get-pregnant
The 7 Most Outrageous GOP Explanations For Why Rape Victims Can't Get Pregnant
keithbvadu2
(36,783 posts)New republican meme: Rape is a misdeed by a parent.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212089664
(The rapist is called a 'parent')
A GOP state lawmaker who recently gave an impassioned speech about being raped as a 16 year old says she feels attacked after a Republican colleague passed out literature describing rape as a misdeed of the parent that doesnt justify having an abortion.
Firestorm49
(4,032 posts)sakabatou
(42,152 posts)Shoonra
(521 posts)... If, magically, we could trace back everyone's lineage all the way back, to medieval times, to ancient times, even to neolithic times, we'd find in many (perhaps most) lines of descent at least one pregnancy by rape or incest. I'm talking about more than 120 generations, back to Biblical times and maybe even earlier. In point of fact, until the 19th century, most peasants could and did marry only someone who was within walking distance, which meant there were a lot of cousin marriages, which some might consider incestuous. As for rape, it was an unfortunate accompaniment to invasions, war, imprisonment, and lots of other circumstances throughout history.
My point is that King is right that lots of people, maybe most, had, somewhere in their ancestry over the past hundred and more generations, an awkward source of pregnancy. But if it hadn't happened, and it didn't happen for lots of people, then there'd still be plenty of babies only these would all have come from socially acceptable procreation. It's not as if mankind required rape to be perpetuated.
I get antsy when I hear men (and it's ALWAYS men) talk about a rape pregnancy somehow being part of God's Great Plan that mustn't be disturbed. Keep that up and just a matter of time before a rape suspect defends himself in court with the argument that he was doing God's will.
It's barbaric to make a woman go through pregnancy, with all its difficulties and dangers, and bear her rapist's child. It's perverse to expect her to carry that baby, and worse to expect her to raise it (and if she does, will the rapist return to insist on seeing 'his child'?).
maxsolomon
(33,321 posts)Rape (more than incest I'd wager) was probably pretty commonplace 10,000 years ago. It was certainly common in warfare throughout history.
But would the population be lower without it? Doubtful.
King's just bullshitting to justify his anti-choice position. It's probably music to the ears of Whipipo who'll never face an unwanted pregnancy.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Most people did not go more then a few miles from when they were born. During those times, almost everyone married no farther away than a 12th cousin, even where they did not know each other growing up.
Eleanor and Franklin were 5th cousins. Less aristocratic families likely don't even know who their fifth cousins are.
Democat13
(4 posts)Do Republican men ever try to imagine what it would be like to be a woman who is a victim of rape or incest? Do Republican men ever try to imagine the horror of being pregnant as a result of rape or incest? Oh, what am I thinking? In order to imagine what it would be like to be in another's situation would require empathy, and as we know, Republicans somehow construe empathy to be a bad trait.